At the exact same time that Samsung was unveiling its new Galaxy Gear smartwatch (more on that from Reviews Editor Ron Amadeo later today), Qualcomm was making a smartwatch announcement of its own. While the company is primarily known for its Snapdragon chips, it will also be producing its own smartwatch called "Toq."

Engadget has spent some hands-on time with the device, but we'll boil it down to the essentials: Toq is a touch-enabled smartwatch that tethers to your Android (now) and iOS (soon) smartphone via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You can read e-mails and texts and respond to them in a limited way using pre-programmed responses you've entered into the app. You can also do other simple smartwatch-y things like check the weather and check stock prices.

Battery life is going to be a big concern for this first wave of connected watches, and we'll doubtlessly see some unique solutions to the problem. Qualcomm is using its own Mirasol display technology, which is sort of like the E Ink displays used in e-readers, except it can display colors. The downside is that, like E Ink, it requires an external light source, but the good news is that the Toq should get three-to-five days of battery life on a single charge by Qualcomm's estimates. A front-light is also reportedly installed on the Toq that can be used to illuminate the screen in a pinch.

Rather than being kept under the screen, the watch's battery is apparently being kept on the band near the buckle, which seems like an interesting way to distribute the weight as long as the band isn't easily broken. Charging is handled via an included dock accessory.

Pricing and availability is unavailable (as usual), but supposedly we can expect the Toq at some point in Q4.

The downside is that, like E Ink, it requires an external light source

The upside is that, like E Ink, you can use it outside like any other watch you might have.

And the battery life, of course.

This seems like a good trade-off to me. Normal watches also require light to see, or they may have a button to activate a light (which would also be possible here, don't know if they included one). The alternative is the screen turns off and you can't check the time without doing something to activate the watch. I would rather have always-on.

Interesting tidbit, looks like Qualcomm doesn't really want to make these things and they're more of a tech demo.

CNET wrote:

Meanwhile, Chandhok said Qualcomm has no plans to release further versions of Toq in the future. Other companies are working on devices with mirasol screens, he said, and Qualcomm expects those to hit the market soon."We prefer our partners make them," Chandhok said

I've never seen a mirasol display in person, so I have no idea how good or bad colour reproduction is on the screen. I don't trust the linked youtube video for a second; it's a just render of the whole shebang.

The display should help out with battery life, but I do wonder how this is going to be any different from the PalmOS watches from about a decade ago. Those lasted, what, a couple of days between charges?

3-5 days....I don't think I've changed the battery in my daily watch in 3 years, which was the first chage after 7 years. Part of what I love about watches is that they work. No fussing about with chargers or connectors on a frequent basis.

Like others, I already have a smart(pocket)watch that I charge regularly in my phone.

Interesting tidbit, looks like Qualcomm doesn't really want to make these things and they're more of a tech demo.

CNET wrote:

Meanwhile, Chandhok said Qualcomm has no plans to release further versions of Toq in the future. Other companies are working on devices with mirasol screens, he said, and Qualcomm expects those to hit the market soon."We prefer our partners make them," Chandhok said

Seems a really good idea, since Qualcomm makes all the hardware for it a tech demo makes a heck of a lot of sense. Basically it's a high end Pebble to show off to the world and it looks better than most options so far (especially considering what Samsung is pushing today, sheesh that thing is ugly).

But Qualcomm sucks in the retail space, no one really knows who they are outside of people with technical knowledge and not many people will drop $300 on a product they've never heard of. But Apple/Samsung/whoever putting in this screen, or using these chips, or this batter idea could sell a whole lot to a lot of people. It's a good way to take Intel's idea for ultrabooks and run with it.

On the idea of smart watches in general, the ability to look up stuff on wikipedia while in the shower/cooking/etc is a totally undervalued market. I'm always thinking about things that I wish I had a wikipedia feed into the back of my brain for.

edit: Reading more about this thing, holy hell have Qualcomm got it right. Wireless charging (the carry case doubles as a charger), 3 day battery life (even with bluetooth for pairing to phone, as far as I can tell), the display can be lit, it's water resistant, it's a high resolution display, the only downside is that it will be produced in "limited" numbers. I can't wait for someone to mass produce this at $150 a pop.

If customers can't figure out how to pronounce your "oh, we're so hipster we purposefully misspelled the name to sound cool" name, then you're already one foot in failure-land.

Let's see: it looks like a shortening of "toque", the stereotypical chef's hat, but more generally a brimless hat, and for example in Canada it means beanie, but another Canadian name for that kind of hat is ... "watch hat"! Also, it is pronounced as in tick-tock, yet it has a "Q" in it, like Qualcomm.

That _must_ be what they were thinking.

Having said that: using the lower power Mirasol screen technology could be a brilliant idea; it pwns the Samsung "one day battery life if you are lucky" wrist-toy on that count.

The smart watch that will appeal the most is the one that can excel at easing the access to the app as well as providing useful functionality from the integrated app.

I've been using the Coockoo watch for a few months and I find its notification and alert features useful once i has been customized for my tastes. Features like music control and camera control are also appealing.

It will be great to see what innovative features people will come up for this form factor.

I've never seen a mirasol display in person, so I have no idea how good or bad colour reproduction is on the screen.

It's not good. Very limited gamut and low saturation. About similar to a cheap TN LCD from 10 years ago. But Qualcomm did recently claim they'd improved the gamut, so the old prototypes might not be relevant. This might be less of a problem on a watch, where you really just want some colour to spice up the UI. I mean, no-one's going to want to watch video on their watch, are they?... (Cue 2015 product line-up boasting 1080p 2" screens - "Why pull out your phone to watch a movie?")

The display should help out with battery life, but I do wonder how this is going to be any different from the PalmOS watches from about a decade ago. Those lasted, what, a couple of days between charges?

This is the thing that concerns me about smartwatches. I like the concept, but I don't want to have to think about my watch that much. I have a cheap digital sport watch (got it many year ago, but probably at most $50 at the time), which I pretty much leave on all the time (it's waterproof, natch). I don't mind having to charge a phone, etc., since I don't expect it to be on my wrist while I'm sleeping or whatever. But having to remember to remove my watch to charge it overnight and then put it on again (even every few nights) is a no-go for me.

I guess a lot of people take their watches off at night, so maybe I'm an outlier here.